BelKA

Belka ( russian and white russian БелКА - an acronym from Belarusian Беларускі Касьмічны Апарат for Belarusian space apparatus ) had the first satellite of Belarus should be. It was built on behalf of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences of the Russian space company RKK Energia. Belka launched on 26 July 2006 from a Dnepr -1 carrier rocket from Baikonur, but the rocket crashed after problems with the first stage, about 2 minutes after launch. The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko attended the launch from Baikonur.

Belka was an earth observation satellite, which is based on the "Victoria" - satellite platform RKK Energia. The initial mass of the satellite was about 750 kg. Belka had on a sun-synchronous orbit ( SSO) to be placed at a height of 511 km and an orbital inclination of 97.4 °. Developed in Belarus cameras of the satellite should have deliver images with resolutions of 2.5 m and 10.5 m. The lifetime of the satellite should be five years.

The replacement satellite, Belka 2 was launched on 22 July 2012.